Fairchild Semiconductor’s System General Subsidiary Wins Prestigious National Invention Award 2007

The awards were made in three categories: Best Contributor, Best Patented Invention and Best Patented Design. System General was successful in the Best Contributor category, and its PWM controller with off-time modulation for power conversion was a silver award winner in the Best Patented Invention category. The awards, introduced in 1992 to encourage local Taiwan companies to focus their efforts on invention and innovation, are organized by the Ministry of Economic Affairs Intellectual Property Bureau and examined more than 300 semiconductor products.

“The System General products are widely used in power supplies and converters for computer systems, LCDs, home appliances, mobile devices and lighting applications. As of March 2007, System General had been awarded more than 100 patents around the world, including 62 in the United States and 30 in Taiwan,” said Tom Yang, Fairchild Semiconductor’s vice president of Power Conversion Products. “It is this level of expertise and knowledge that has led to our success in these prestigious awards.”

“We are extremely proud that the judges commented that our products are very practical and environmentally friendly. They also commented that these products are appropriate for use in home appliances since they offer exceptional energy saving qualities and are user friendly,” continued Yang.

The silver award for Best Patented Invention was won by System General’s PWM controller with off-time modulation for power conversion, which was designed to lower standby power consumption. This innovative feature is included in many of System General’s devices including the SG584X and SG69XX series. The invention saves power by increasing the switching period under light-load and zero-load conditions. Under heavy-load conditions, the controller maintains a constant maximum output current. These two features prevent the magnetic components (inductors, transformers, etc.) from being saturated.

Fairchild Semiconductor’s division of System General is one of Asia’s leading power analog suppliers, and it has a growing portfolio of Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) controllers, desktop PC power supply supervisors and combo ICs, and power factor correction (PFC) controllers. The recent acquisition of System General was a natural extension of Fairchild’s business strategy to invest aggressively and expand by pursuing fast-growing power analog markets.

More than two thirds of the worldwide power management IC market is in Asia, with six of the top 10 worldwide power supply OEMs located in Taiwan. The AC/DC off-line power conversion market, which consists of isolated PWM controllers, PFC controllers, and AC/DC off-line regulators measured over US$1.5 billion in 2005. Fairchild, through its acquisition of System General, is now a leader in this fast growing segment.